


Merrill quits blood magic

by PreDead_Ghost



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Gen, Kirkwall (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 12:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30004917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PreDead_Ghost/pseuds/PreDead_Ghost
Summary: This is a Merrill hate account, I rewrote her arch after keeper Marethari died so I don't hate her so much. I feel like she's just a genuinely badly written character instead of one that is just bad like anders, obviously this isn't perfect I just wanted to fix a character arch that I hated which is what fanfiction is for, please dont hate on the post dudes.Enjoy I guess...
Kudos: 2





	Merrill quits blood magic

Merrill was sitting on the wounded coast. She didn’t much care for the cold stone of the coast, but it felt that the waterfront was the only place she would find comfort for the loss of her Keeper. Gideon understood, but she felt the blame in his eyes, no matter how much he tried to hide it from her. Fenris had felt no shame in blaming the death of her Keeper on her blood magic, nor did Anders, even those that wanted to comfort her, like Isabella and Varric, didn’t seem to understand why she was so sad. She wanted to jump into the sea to get the shame out of her skin, her own Vallaslin felt dirty on her face. Walking along the coast she felt the cold sand stick between her toes. 

“Keeper Marethari shouldn’t have paid the price for the mirror, I left the clan so I could have paid,” she said, kicking a pile of pebbles into the sea, “but knowing Gideon he would have done anything to pay the price for me instead too. Was this always the fated end of blood magic?”

Merrill took out her dagger, Tamlin’s dagger that she found near the Eluvian. When she brought back the Eluvian to Keeper Marethari Tamlin’s dagger was in her pocket, when the spirit in Sundermount spoke to her, convinced her to use blood magic to cleanse her shard of the mirror, Merrill used Tamlin’s knife. 

“Tamlin must be so disappointed in me. His dagger killed our Keeper! I used his dagger to turn myself into a bloody flat ear! I succumbed to shem magic, and got nothing from it!” 

Merrill untied the braids in her hair. She threw the ties, they didn’t go as far as she’d have liked them to. All her hair was down, falling lower than her shoulders. She unsheathed Tamlin’s dagger pointing it to the right side of her face where her Vallaslin met her hairline. 

“I’m sick of tearing apart my clan!” she started screaming tears running down her face, “I’m sorry Tamlin, I’ll make this right someday!” Merrill cut through her hair, shaving the side of it. She picked at the leather on Tamlin’s dagger until it came undone, tearing it off the dagger she used a strip off the leather guard to tie the rest of her hair back, “I swear by the Dread Wolf, to all of you, Rudha, Pol, Harsal, Chandan, Mother, the elders, Marethari, and you Tamlin. May Falon'din guide you all, I promise I’ll make it right.” Merrill shifted the dagger in between her hands. “Starting with this!” She yelled, throwing the dagger off the coast into the crashing waves. 

Part of her mind screamed for her to run into the water to get it back, That’s all you have of Tamlin! How will you defend yourself at close range? You can save the clan with the Eluvian! What are you thinking?

“Gideon was right the first day we met. There is no good that can come from blood magic. It cleanses nothing. I need to cleanse myself of its curse on my body and soul.” Merrill turned down the path back to Kirkwall. “It’s time to go home now Merrill.”

***

Merrill sat in her home in Kirkwall, looking at the Eluvian. “Curiosity is a dangerous thing Merrill, don’t let it consume you,” her mother had said those words to her when she tried leaving the Arevel while it was moving, Merrill would wander too far from her Mother’s sight often when she was little, trying to see something. Why didn’t she listen to those words long ago? 

She should have left the Eluvian where it stood when Tamlin was lost inside it. She should have destroyed it when Caris got the blight from it and had to be taken away. 

She heard a knock. The door opened and Gideon’s voice echoed through her small home. 

“Merrill, are you doing okay?” he walked to her room where she was sitting, “I wanted to give you a little bit, but are you alright?”

Merrill stood, staff in hand, eyes pointed at the shabby wooden flooring. “I should have done this a long time ago, Gideon.” 

Merrill took her staff out, smashing the blade end into the glass, shattering pieces onto the floor in millions of pieces. Tears streamed down her face, her shoulders shaking. She ran to Gideon crying into his arms. 

“I’m sorry, Gideon! I should have listened to you when you kept the Arulin’Holm from me! Keeper Marethari was right!” Merrill clawed into Gideon’s arms.

“I’m sorry Merrill, I wish no one needed to pay a price for what you did.”

“Why can’t anyone let me pay my own price. I know you would have done the same thing, Gideon!”

“We love you, Merrill. We don’t want you to get hurt.”

“How can you hate the choices I make and still love me Gideon!” 

“Because I can see and understand your choices. I want you to be a better person, Merrill. You’re my friend, you always will be, even if you make foolish decisions.”

“Is that what you call what I did, a foolish decision.”

“What would you rather I call it.”

Merrill stepped back shaking her head, “I don’t know, Gideon. I don’t know.” 

Gideon pulled Merrill in for one more hug, “Come on Merrill, let’s clean up that glass before you get hurt.” 

“Thank you Gideon.”


End file.
